


Colours

by infinityeggsy



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 07:43:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13946892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinityeggsy/pseuds/infinityeggsy
Summary: Julian is bored, Barry is curious about his lab mate, and neither of them know how to start a real conversation.// unedited sorry





	Colours

                Barry Allen woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. It was cold, mid-autumn, and Barry could easily dress for it. If only he would check the weather. Technically, Barry was awake on time, but getting out of bed is an entirely different issue. For someone with superspeed, Barry was impressively capable of being late. He’d got up eventually, showered at just slightly above-human speed, and dressed in a red sweater over blue jeans and faded converse. Easy, comfortable, and much too light for the outside temperature. Not that Barry was taking the time to notice his environment. He was late, and it was instinctual to focus on the highest priority task- not getting chewed out by Singh for the third time this week. How he kept his job was a mystery to everyone.

                Barry made it to his lab with the help of certain *cough* abilities, and settled in his desk chair, slightly out of breath and frowning down at the work he had set for the day. Normally that work was what Barry lived for. Even with his work as the Flash, he took some sort of solace in performing tests and drawing conclusions from the fragments of situations he had been tasked with piecing together. Simple as that. No why, no solution, just a who and how. But today everything felt like just another thing in his way, just another obstacle in front of something he couldn’t quite name. Once his heart rate had settled, Barry set to work. He didn’t notice the stare of the man sat across from him.

                Julian Albert always beat his co-scientist to their shared lab. He liked to get in early, before the sunlight seeped into the warehouse-like room and un-blurred all the corners and crevices. He found comfort in the messy pre-dawn dark, and he noticed he could work better before the yellow hustle of the workday set in. It gave him time to center himself before being forced to see his absurdly optimistic lab mate. The simple presence of Barry Allen could change the air in a room. The scruffy CSI let of something akin to electricity, an incredibly distracting trait that often caused Julian to lose focus on whatever dull report he had been typing up and find himself staring blankly forward. It was becoming a problem. Julian knew and recognized that, though he’s never admit to anything more than a wayward thought towards Barry, usually potently annoyed. But, whether he knew it or not, Barry was thoroughly annoying. So, that morning, Julian had decided to annoy him back.

It wasn’t obvious, that just wasn’t his style, but if Allen was a CSI worth his salt he was sure to notice. Julian had taken a pen from one of Barry’s stupidly crowded whiteboards, a green one, and scribbled on one of his machines. Sure, Julian knew what it was, but he didn’t much care what he was writing on so long as Barry would hate him for it. The shape wasn’t clear, but it was small and vaguely star like. Julian would never tell Barry this, but he genuinely liked stargazing, stereotypes be damned. A star just felt right, who cares if it was a childish choice. He’d been quick about it, taking his usual long steps to get there and back without pause. He’d sat back down and immediately started working. He didn’t even look up when Barry stumbled in and sat down.

Things were normal for a good half of their day, Julian working diligently through stacks of paperwork, and Barry ran dozens of tests on god knows what. Honestly, how many samples does he get every day? There can’t be _that_ many cases. At least it kept him out of Julian’s way. He couldn’t help but notice that Barry seemed less enthusiastic than usual. Barry liked to try and start a conversation each morning. Julian liked to promptly curb that conversation with clipped and polite responses, but Barry hadn’t even given him the chance this morning. Maybe he was finally learning. Barry wasn’t learning. He was just tired. Really, that’s all he’d been feeling lately, the infinity-feeling tiredness brought on by so many things. Flash work, CSI work, the strain on both from the other, Iris and Caitlyn and Cisco and Joe and everyone else who depended on him and on who he depended.

                Maybe that’s just what you get when you take on evil; an inexpressible exhaustion that doesn’t go away until it ends you. Yeah, Barry would consider himself an optimist and a dreamer, but sometimes hopes and dreams just weren’t enough. He could feel himself sinking into it, the comfortable despair of ‘why keep trying?’ It was almost enough to distract him from the green smudge on the corner of the plastic safety cover of a machine he was at. Barry frowned at it, reaching out a finger to swipe at it. His finger came back clean, and the smudge hadn’t changed. It wasn’t on the inside, then. He reached around to wipe it off, before pausing to squint closer at it. It was vaguely shapes like … a star. He risked a glance across the room at Julian. No, he wouldn’t do this. Would he?? No. He’s too high and mighty for that. But maybe Barry would have to get him back for it, if it _was_ Julian. Worst case scenario, he just gets another check against him in Julian’s book, not that it would make much of a difference. Julian’s distaste for Barry was only rivaled by Barry’s hope that someday Julian would give him a chance. Or _another_ chance, from Julian’s point of view.

Julian knew Barry had noticed the green spot now. He’d tuned back in to Barry’s activities when he’d gone still, or as still as he could be. Julian swore he was always in motion, in one way or another. Barry had stared at the star for an inordinate amount of time before figuring out how to swipe it off. Barry may be smart but sometimes he could be quite awkward. Julian couldn’t help but compare him to a young puppy. That was a strange thought. He shook the thought off and returned to work, satisfied with the fact that Barry had not only noticed his star, but taken the time to investigate it. There was something nice about having Barry’s attention, even for just a moment.


End file.
